Not sure where I left off with the misadventures on my journey to Burning Man. Where we last left off I think I was having my transmission rebuilt while being stuck in Dixon, CA. After that all day ordeal, I picked the trailer up and drove it to Sacramento. A traffic was real bad so, instead of waiting in traffic, I pulled over to a walmart to stock up. After a few hours of loading, checking fluid levels, etc I go to plug in the trailer and I notice no lights. I climb under the trailer and see the the entire wiring harness has melted into one solid plug of wires. Further investigation finds that the plug coming from the trailer has the sort of round prongs whereas the connector I just had the U-Haul guy install the day before had flat spade types ) in other words, it was obvious he had installed the wrong kind). It was by now about 8pm and I realized that WalMart had the parts to do it right so I went in, got anew female wiring harness like the one U-Haul installed and a new male spade type connector I could use to replace the end coming from the trailer. Anyway, this job took me until 3am to finish and when I was done. .., nothing. So I slept in the cab of the truck until daylight, found the closest U-Haul dealer and showed up when they opened. Short story long, it was their fault, it took him until 4PM that day to fix it as it had also fried wires under the trailer. So now I am off and finally heading to Reno. As I cross Donner Pass, the truck seems tone doing fine. I am so exhausted when I see that there is a ret stop about midway across, I stop to sleep for an hour or so before continuing. I leave the truck running (you do that with diesels) to power the AC as I sleep. After an hour or so I put the truck in D and she just barely goes - like maybe 2MPH - up the very slight incline leaving the rest stop. So i let her fall back and start doing circles in the parking lot thinking if I can build up enough of a head of steam she will be able to make it up and out. I do this and she starts heading up the hill at about 3MPH (if course Im over in the shoulder). After a while she just stops moving, no matter how much gas I give her. As Im fiddling with the truck a real nice CHP officer named Charlotte Crabtree comes up and asks if I am ok. Frankly I wasnt and was almost crying with the level of frustration I had had up to that point. Anyway, I decided that since several parties were depending in me to bring them their art pieces and supplies I would transfer them from the trailer to the truck, disconnect from the trailer, drive the truck to the event, borrow someone elses truck and come back for the RV. The officer patiently waits behind me as I transfer Noam Turgemans art to the truck, re-tie everything and unhook and stabilize the trailer. Guess what? It made no difference whatsoever. The truck still went very slowly. I made it about another 1/4 mile before it stopped completely. So now I call AAA and have the truck hauled to the nearest town with a Ford Dealership. I leave the truck with them and find a cheap hotel for some much needed rest. Their service department is closed Sunday so I am screwed until then at the very least. Next day I find a place that actually has a truck for rent (they are almost impossible to find at this time if the year due to the event). Anyway, the truck is in Sacramento. The place closes at 2 and its 1:20PM. By some miracle I am able to find a taxi who is able to get me there in time (after first going to the wrong address in the opposite side of town). Anyway. I now have a 16ft box truck that has a 2 hitch ball (the trailer is 2 5/16 and a place to hook up four wires. I buy what parts I think I will need and return to the trailer. Guess what? The trailer has been towed. $405 later I have it out of impound and find the I have two male connectors for the trailer lights. I then proceed to hotwire a harness jumping this wire to that, using liberal amounts if duct tape to get lights. I also wrap a 2 length of chain with a D-ring around the hitch to prevent it from detaching vertically. I drive until about 3am until I am an hour away from the event and (again) sleep in the cab of the truck. At first light I drive until I am past Gerlach (the last town before BurningMan) when suddenly the traffic stops. I have been in this same spot for over three hours while a huge rainstorm hit us. It is my suspicion that the playa itself is now a giant mud puddle and, until it has dried sufficiently to let cars in, that we are here for the duration. When theres a will theres a way. - Im going to get there come hell, transmissions, wiring harnesses, tow vultures or high water
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 17:29:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015